Nellie didn’t know how long she knelt there in the grass, her knees scraped and bleeding. She didn’t know how long her chest had been aching nor when her cheeks dried after the tears had run out. She didn’t dare look east either, where Meteora was beginning to reach the horizon. So she found the Sorairo’s home instead, an old refurbished farmhouse that had been built over several times as new rooms were added throughout the years, only a fifteen minute walk from the bottom of the hill. If she went there now, before the others woke up, she could find some secret spot to hide and weep in for the rest of the night. But she knew that wouldn’t last. Her friends would wake up before long, newly arisen as musae, and there would be no hiding from reality then.

Meteora had come and passed, not to be seen again for hundreds of years.  

The night wasn’t any less cold either. And though the breeze was tender, Nellie found it difficult to stop quivering and heave the breaths she needed to get to her feet. Her body felt weak, distant, as if she were watching it move from someone else’s perspective and it would break from her control at any moment. The pain was hers however, it always had been.

When she did rise and make her way up the hill, Nellie was keenly aware that she had left something behind. Something she could never go back and retrieve. The child within her, the one who gave her hopes and dreams, who filled her with all sorts of crazy ideas and promises that things would get better, was gone.

Back on the road, without the spectacle of Meteora overhead, the scene of the crash was much more severe than she had remembered. Arashi and Tei had managed to move the truck onto the street but the front-right end was dented in, and the vehicle as a whole looked totally inoperable. Its bumper lay by the tree they’d run into, now cracked and bent backwards onto its other leafy brethren. 

Tei caught sight of her first. The ten-year-old Tennkā remained untouched by the Instruments, though his eyes filled with worry the moment they fell on the girl that he had come to know as an older sister after so many years. He called for Arashi and hurried over to wrap Nellie in a hug. 

“We thought you’d been struck,” he murmured, his voice muffled as he spoke into her chest. 

Nellie’s arms were heavy as she returned the gesture. She pressed her mouth into a thin line before her response, but the void she felt inside proved too strong and she sensed a fresh wave of tears rising from the reserves she had assumed were dry.

“No, the meteor missed me,” she said, caressing his pewter mess of hair.

It was her first time acknowledging what had happened. Her first time revisiting the memory. Her thoughts began to whirl with the swell of emotions that were forever tied to that moment, but before they had the chance to spiral again, Arashi appeared beside the two of them. 

“Oh, Nellie…” 

One look was all it took for her to understand. The Tennkā woman reached for the girl who had so passionately labored at throwing together a show in celebration of this momentous night, and Nellie fell into her more than willingly. The sobbing came from deep within her as she wept into the familiar embrace of Arashi's arms. The wails were ugly, and heavy, each one fresh with pain and heartbreak. Tei began to cry as well, hoping that his silent touch would alleviate some of the agony.

And it did, over time. Nellie’s sorrow became like the ocean as the moments passed. Deep and overwhelming in its entirety, hitting her gently at certain instances, seeping her in a numb emptiness, only for the tide to rise and crash into her with a fresh bout of misery in the next second. 

A pair of headlights climbing up the hill kept her from spending the rest of her night cradled by Arashi. Public transports on Nithica were all operated by automatons, meaning they could run late into the night, even in small towns like Comet Hill. The bus raced past them and into town with a blast of wind that whipped Nellie’s hair across her face and snapped the Sorairo’s back into action. 

 “Tei,” Arashi said, helping Nellie to her feet. “C’mon, let’s get your siblings onto the truck.”

Her son gave Nellie one last apologetic glance, and left her with only the cold night air as the two of them went to Max and Yuè. Nellie finally felt steady again, even after they were gone. Monitoring her breaths, and in control of any triggering thoughts, she decided to check on Raul who had been struck somewhere nearby.

He was heavy, but Arashi had somehow managed to move him away from the line of trees and onto a softer patch of grass. Nellie sat beside him and rested his head against her legs, noting the massive changes his musae energies had already made. He was sharper everywhere, his jawline much more defined, the softness of his cheeks gone to give him a harder expression despite the peace of sleep on his roster. He was less thin too, beneath his soaked shirt, more slender and muscular. But without a doubt, the biggest change had to be the musae coloring to his hair. The meteors bleached the pigments from one’s hair and irises when struck, dying them the same color as the energies running within each muse. So Nellie knew that when Raul finally awoke, she wouldn’t be staring into the brown eyes of the boy she’d known for the last eight years. When he awoke, they’d be the same saffron yellow color that had painted his hair. 

She ran her hands through it, spiking it in all sorts of ways that Raul would never allow had he been awake. It was soothing, and kept her busy as this momentous night on Mach came ever closer to ending. But eventually, she felt a small tap on the shoulder and Arashi was there at her side once more.

“It’s time to go,” she said, somewhat somberly. “Would you help me carry him?”

Nellie grabbed Raul by the legs and together the two of them lifted the last Sorairo into the back of the truck. With the tailgate closed, Tei came to join her at the back of the truck as Arashi shifted the engine into neutral gear. They couldn’t start the engine for fear that the battery inside would suddenly ignite, so they pushed the truck until it began a slow descent down the hill. Acting quickly, Tei and Nellie jumped into the back with their siblings, and were nearly blown away by the rush of the wind as the pickup gained enough momentum to roll them all the way home.